Reuters reported that Finnish miner Talvivaara expects to receive permission from the Euratom Supply Agency to produce and export uranium even amid current concerns over nuclear power.
Mr Pekka Pera CEO of Talvivaara said that "We are very confident. We anticipate that we will get permission in June. After that the Finnish government will make a decision. Anxiety over the safety of nuclear power plants has increased as Japanese authorities scrambled to bring a quake damaged nuclear power plant back from the brink of disaster although there is no strong real alternative. I anticipate that there will be a bit of a downturn in uranium prices for maybe 2 or 3 years."
Mr Pera said that production could start about a year after permission is received. At its existing nickel and zinc operations, the company will undertake some unscheduled maintenance work to address the problem of bottlenecks. However, it still expects to produce 30,000 tonnes to 35,000 tonnes of nickel for this year with the rate hitting 50,000 tonnes annually by the end of 2011. It will carry out two weeks of work in April/May, when its metals plant will be non operational and plans to conduct at least one week's maintenance in September.
He said that one of the reasons why we can't fix everything now is that the lead times for some mining equipment has increased from two months to about one year 18 months. The issue is affecting all equipment. It is very much like 2006 to 2007. When the company's first dump trucks arrived in 2008 they came without tires. But I hope it won't get as bad as back then.
Miners, already facing longer waits for key equipment as company’s ramp up exploration could face additional pressures as Japanese plants manufacturing heavy earth moving equipment and electronics are hit by shutdowns. The mining equipment for the September maintenance program has already been ordered. Another similarity with 2006 to 2007 is the difficulty in attracting experienced mining professionals.
Mr Pera said that he is still optimistic about nickel prices, noting the recent correction although he said prices are still a bit on the high side. Prices would have to be a bit above USD 20,000 per tonne in the long term to make it feasible for nickel miners to produce around 1.5 million tonnes. Benchmark nickel on the London Metal Exchange is currently trading around USD 26,700.
He said that prices would have to be even higher than this as new production in nickel is shifting toward more energy intensive nickel laterite deposits from nickel sulfides which produce energy.
(Sourced from Reuters)
